An Unlikely Partnership
by klepto-maniac0
Summary: Sephiroth and Aeris are alive again. How will this sit with AVALANCHE? And how will it sit with Aeris, who has found herself Sephiroth's keeper? No, it's not an AeriSeph. Ch. 7 now posted!
1. Devil's Bargain

I know this story's been done many times; but I feel like hurling a new spin onto it. This is more for my own amusement than anybody else's. If you don't like it, don't read it. Flame me if you like—my room is cold and I could use the warmth. And as you know, constructive criticism is always appreciated.

An Unlikely Partnership 

This is an FFVII fanfic by kleptomaniac0. The characters are not mine and never were. Otherwise the Advent Children designs would look much, much cooler, and Sephiroth in CG would not look like a crack addict insomniac. I swear to God, he looks horrible. His Ehrgeiz MS is so much better.

There was no sensation of awakening, no slow relapsing into consciousness. One minute she had been surrounded by the Lifestream's warm green glow, feeling like she was back in her mother's loving arms. She had felt safe, and secure, and warm. The next instant that warmth had slipped away, replaced by a biting cold that was an almost physical assault. She shivered in her thin pink dress and red jacket, teeth chattering, as she frantically rubbed her arms for warmth. The immense chill she was feeling told her she was alive, if nothing else did. Cold did not exist in the Lifestream.

_"Planet,"_ she thought, _"Thank you for bringing me back to life! But couldn't you have put me in Mideel, where it's nice and warm?"_

The Planet did not reply. Aeris sighed and blew on her chill fingers. Her breath steamed spectacularly in the icy air. She got up and jumped up and down, trying to move the blood in her veins. She looked around for an exit, but all she saw around her was cold hard rock. Though slightly discolored and warped from Mako, it was still impermeable. She sighed heavily and looked around. Surely there had to be a way out. Going up was as good a start as any.

She had to tramp around for a bit before finding a crevasse in the rocks that looked promising. Climbing wasn't her forte, but Aeris gamely wedged herself into the crack and pulled herself up, inch by inch, to reach a thin ledge some twenty feet above the ground. It was very narrow, but across from the ledge there was a small, flat cliff she could hop onto, about ten feet away and three feet above. It was too far for a normal human to jump onto, but then again, Aeris wasn't a normal human.

She breathed deeply, summoning her Cetra powers. They were what allowed her to heal without materia, and, to a small extent, fly. True, she could not blaze through the air as the Cetra of yore had been able to, but managing a longer than normal hop was certainly not beyond her.

Air billowed up beneath her feet as a delicious sensation of weightlessness radiated throughout her; Aeris sprang lightly from the ledge, drifting through the air like a bird, before landing easily on the small cliff. She stumbled a bit as her feet touched ground, gravity reclaiming her with a jolt, and Aeris yelped as she tripped over something that lay squarely in her way, hidden by the edge of the cliff. She fell onto her front, scraping her palms on the cold rock as she tried to catch herself. Her knees banged painfully into the stone, making her curse. Cursing still, Aeris looked over her shoulder to see what she had fallen over. The epithets died on her lips.

"Oh, no." She whispered in horror.

There was no mistaking the long silvery hair or the powerful leatherclad frame, but still Aeris hoped beyond all reason that the man she had tripped over was NOT Sephiroth. More than anything else she did not want to face the man who had killed her so easily, with scarcely more than a thrust of his silvery sword. She gulped hard, trying to quell the flutters of fear that raged in her stomach. She was shaking so badly that it was good thing she was sitting down; otherwise, she might have fainted from shock and fear. Her mouth was dry, her throat locked up, and she felt so cold that the arctic air around her was positively tropical. Every instinct in her newly awakened mind screamed RUN RUN RUN, but her body, frozen with fear, would not obey.

Time ticked by. An eternity seemed to pass before Aeris regained some small control over her rigid body. If her legs had galvanized first, she would have run for her life, run as hard and as fast as she was capable of, run until the memory of her silver-haired murderer was lost behind her. But as fate had it, her hand moved, and trembling, she reached out to gingerly touch Sephiroth on the neck. His skin was very, very cold, the tendons underneath as hard as rock. Her fingers trembled as she felt for a pulse. If there wasn't one, then he was dead and she had nothing to fear. But if there was one...

Oh god. She felt a faint throb underneath her fingertips. She jerked her hand back, gasping in terror. There was a pulse! He was alive! He was alive! Oh, to gods above and below he was alive!

_"Maybe it was just my hand,"_ Aeris thought shakily. _"It's cold. I'm shivering. It's probably just my hand. Just my hand."_

She repeated the words over and over inside her head until the words churned into a mindless litany, one that nonetheless calmed her racing heart and stilled her frantic, birdlike breathing. Many minutes ticked by before Aeris could stop the shaking in her hand—and check his pulse again.

_"Why am I doing this?"_ She thought, frowning. "_I already know he's dead. It's like I'm deliberately trying to torture myself by checking again."_

Thump. Thump.

"OH GOD!" Aeris shrieked in fear and scrambled back, ramming into the stone behind her. Her scream rang off the walls, echoing up the passage in shrill, distorted tones. But her terror was not absolute: despite her fear, she did notice that Sephiroth remained where he was. In fact, he didn't even flinch.

That was odd. SOLDIERS, Aeris knew, had extremely sensitive hearing. Her shriek should have made him wince in the very least. But he hadn't done a thing.

It was then that Aeris noticed the dark red stain sprawling like a crimson sheet underneath Sephiroth's inert body. It was faintly shiny, and when Aeris breathed the scent of copper filled her nostrils. Her heart chilled. Aeris had been in battle enough times to know what the dark stuff was. Sephiroth had been bleeding, and by the size of the dark stain he had lost an almost fatal amount of blood. Yet his heart had still been pumping when Aeris had touched him.

_"He's going to die soon."_ Aeris realized. The stark fact of this paused her for a few long moments.

Then she got up and smoothed down her dress. Well, let him. He could die. He had killed her, after all. She would have no mercy for him, as he had had no mercy for her. She turned to go. But something held her step.

_"Can I really just leave him there...?"_ She wondered.

The more she thought about it, the more uncomfortable she felt. She had never turned her back on anything in her life, whether it was on a task or on an injured person. Hesitatingly she looked over her shoulder.

Sephiroth lay on the ground, in the exact same position he had been before. He was too injured to even move. Without her help he would die. A pang of guilt stabbed Aeris in the chest. Despite her feelings toward Sephiroth, she could not let him die.

_"Oh, I hope I don't regret this."_ She thought grimly as she summoned her Cetra heritage. Wind whipped up around her, flinging her hair into a wild brown mass around her face. Her palms filled with light, forming a glowing ball that glowed warmly in the arctic air. With a gentle sigh she swung her hands forward, and the healing wind swirled down to brush over Sephiroth. As the breeze stirred his fine silver hair and carried the faint sound of a groan back to her ears, Aeris suddenly realized the full horror of what she had done.

_"I've revived a monster."_

The shock of her actions hit her like a rush of icy water and Aeris gasped, covering her hands with her mouth. As though in response, Sephiroth twitched, coughing hoarsely. The sound made Aeris freeze, and she was riveted in shock and horror as the once-powerful general slowly pushed himself up onto his hands and knees. Blood suddenly spurted from his leatherclad arms, spattering the ground around him with lurid red. His long hair, matted with blood, draped over his figure and stuck wetly to the wounds on his front.

"Ugh!" He grunted as his arms gave way and he collapsed, dropping onto his side with an almost painful thud. Groaning, he rolled onto his back, one hand pressed tightly over his stomach.

Aeris gasped in horror. Some sword wound had slashed neatly down the center of his chest and stomach, nearly bisecting him. A wave of nausea swept over her as she saw the raw mass of bleeding intestines that he vainly tried to cover—or keep in. His arms were hacked down to the bone, red flesh and hot blood steaming in the cold air. His expression was frighteningly vacant, with his mouth hanging slightly open and his eyes half-closed and unfocused. Maybe it was a good thing he was out of it, Aeris thought—had he been fully conscious, the pain would have crippled him. Despite her fear of the man, Aeris could not help but feel a powerful wave of pity sweep over her. Even to a lunatic, who could do such a thing?

She dropped to her knees, summoning her heritage again. As the second healing wind swept over Sephiroth, she watched as slowly, the wounds on his arms disappeared, leaving only pale, smooth scars to mark where they had been. The wound on his stomach seemed to shrivel, slowly covered up by the same white tissue. Aeris was so intent on watching the wounds close that she did not notice Sephiroth's eyes sharpen and roll over to look at her—at least, not at first.

Some sixth sense made her skin prickle and she turned to look at Sephiroth's face. A scream burst from her lips as she saw him regarding her, his green Mako eyes even and unreadable. As she scrambled back, a hand pressed over her frantic heart, a slight smile touched his lips.

"You." He whispered, blinking slowly. His voice was devoid of all strength, only barely audible in the still air. "Ce...tra."

Aeris nodded, her lips pressed together tightly. She clenched her hands into fists in an attempt to control her fear.

"What about it?" She asked challengingly, although her voice was weak and shaky.

The hand over his stomach, still bloody from his half healed injury, twitched. "Heal..." He whispered.

Aeris scowled. "I don't know what made me do it," She said, "But I'm not doing it again!"

"Thanks."

The single word stopped Aeris cold. She blinked a few times, unable to process what he had just said. Had Sephiroth, the great SOLDIER commander, the strongest swordsman in the world, really said...thanks?

She struggled to come up with a biting remark, but nothing readily surfaced. Still, she didn't want to give him a 'you're welcome', because what had he been welcome to? A fleeting moment of her bleeding heart nature, that was all. It wasn't like she had been _really_ trying to save his life or anything. Aeris settled for hugging her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around her shoulders. It was still very cold.

Sephiroth didn't seem too put off by her silence, but he sighed softly and closed his eyes. Aeris was suddenly seized by fear.

"Hey!" She shouted and scrambled forwards, hovering over him. "Don't go to sleep! I didn't heal you so you could die again!"

He opened his eyes and looked up at her. He was still smiling. Well, smirking was more like it. There was an irritating expression in his eyes that made her certain he was laughing at her inside, and the faintly sardonic tilt of his mouth confirmed that. Aeris was sure many women found his somewhat cocky smile attractive, but she wasn't one of them. Well...it was attractive, but she wouldn't melt over it. He had killed her, after all. She would never forgive him for that.

Aeris sat back on her heels and regarded him stonily. What was she going to do now? She had healed him, and in a twisted sort of way, that made him her responsibility. She very well couldn't leave him lying on the rock, alone and freezing. Good lord, he was wearing even less than she was! He had his pants and boots, and that was all. Even his omnipresent sword was nowhere to be seen.

Alone, weak, half-naked, and unarmed. It was hardly the condition she could leave somebody in. Maybe if Sephiroth had been able to stand on his own two feet and say something more than broken syllables, Aeris would have been able to walk away, but his pitiful state of weakness made something in her wrench. Her fists tightened. Damn her softhearted nature!

She huffed angrily and her breath swirled out in a massive misty cloud. Again Aeris became aware of how acutely cold it was. If she didn't get warmer, and soon, she would soon die. And so would Sephiroth.

_"So I'm in charge of him now, is that it?" _She thought bitterly. Sighing in exasperation, she called her Cetra powers a third time. His emerald green eyes flicked to the glowing ball of light in her hands, and she saw them light up as he recognized it as healing magic. Almost protectively Aeris held the healing wind away from him, watching his face. When his glance shifted from the magic ball to her, she addressed him in firm tones.

"I'm going to make a deal with you." She said, her voice almost as cold as the air around her. "I'll heal you; and in return, you don't kill me. Deal?"

_"Oh, what makes you think he's going to keep _that _promise?" _Something in her asked acidly.

"Deal." Sephiroth breathed. He smirked again. Was that expression engrained on his face? Aeris half thought so. But just because he had an infuriating smile didn't mean she'd withhold healing. With a sigh of exasperation, she released the healing wind and let it flow over Sephiroth's body. Under the soft streamers of light, the stomach wound shriveled to nothingness. Aeris tensed as Sephiroth twitched and then rolled onto his side, pushing himself shakily up. At last he managed to push himself into a sitting position. Even sitting, he was a good head taller than Aeris was, and Aeris couldn't help but feel a wash of fear. Physically, he was just intimidating.

"Thank you." He said, dipping his head politely. His voice was deep and mellow, seductive almost.

Aeris scowled. She would not be taken in by his honeyed tones. Instead she said, "Remember the deal."

He smirked and bowed to her a little mockingly. "Of course. I never renege on my promises."

"Bullshit!" Popped out of Aeris's mouth before she could stop herself.

Sephiroth was not bothered. "If that's the case, why bother to cut a deal with me in the first place?" He asked, his tone reasonable and a little cajoling. "My dear woman..."

"My name is Aeris." She said sharply, her green eyes narrowing. "And I'm not your 'dear' anything!"

His green eyes narrowed too, but only because he smiled in amusement. "Aeris." Sephiroth murmured thoughtfully, and then bowed to her a little mockingly. "And you already know who I am."

"Of course!" Aeris snapped, rising to her feet. "You're the one who killed me."

Sephiroth looked up at her, his face unreadable. Aeris glared down at him, daring him to defend his actions. In their silence, the cold wind gusted through.

"True." Sephiroth said. Then, in an almost cheerful voice, he added, "But you're alive again."

Aeris stared at him. "That..." She sputtered. "That's not the point!" The young Cetra threw her hands in the air, struggling between confusion and anger. "You killed me!"

"I did." He said, nodding. His tone of voice was insultingly conversational, as if he were talking about the weather instead of her murder. Aeris wanted to scream at him, but it was obvious that to Sephiroth, the end justified the means. She was alive again, and that was all. No real harm had been done in his eyes.

Aeris huffed angrily and folded her arms across her chest, half in anger and half to warm herself. The air was still bitingly cold.

Sephiroth put his hands against the ground and pushed, grunting as he levered himself onto his feet. He tottered unsteadily, as though he had never walked before, and Aeris watched in disbelief as slowly, undeniably, he began to tip over backwards. Sephiroth's eyes widened in panic and he windmilled his arms, trying to regain his balance. It was an almost comical picture. Aeris would have laughed, but he was going to tip right over the edge of the cliff.

"Oh no!" Aeris gasped and lunged forward, grabbing a thick lock of his long silver hair. He yelped—actually yelped—in pain as she yanked back, abruptly reversing his fall. Sephiroth pitched forward and Aeris shrieked as he collapsed on top of her, knocking her to the ground. She wiggled out, or tried to. He was _heavy._ "Get off me!" She snapped.

"Sorry," Sephiroth apologized, looking sorry. Despite his expression, Aeris darkly wondered if he would have stayed where he was if she hadn't ordered him to move. In any case, he rolled off and got to his feet a second time. Aeris watched him warily in case he tipped over again, but this time he seemed steady enough, although there was an unhealthy shaking in his limbs. He was still very weak.

He tilted his head upwards and looked around, his Mako eyes searching. Aeris looked at him for a moment before asking, "Do you know the way out?"

"Yes." He replied. He looked at her, his eyebrows quirking in amusement, and asked, "Do you want me to show you?"

Aeris's cheeks flushed with the warmth of anger. She didn't mind asking for help, but asking it from an enemy galled her, particularly when that enemy knew she had no other option. Would he make her beg for his help? Aeris looked away, scowling. "Just point me in the right direction." She muttered.

"Which one?" he asked. "There are many tunnels in these caves, but only one exit."

Aeris huffed in exasperation. She would have sworn he was trying to make things difficult, but she had the smacking feeling that it was the truth. "So I'm supposed to follow you, is that it?" She asked bitterly, looking up at him.

Sephiroth nodded once, and it was a graceful motion that sent his white-silver hair rippling like a sheet of satin. The bloody mats in it rather ruined the effect, though. "Exactly. It'd work out better in the long run if you did." He said.

Aeris looked at him suspiciously. "What do you mean?"

Sephiroth gestured at himself with one large, fine-boned hand. It could have been the hand of an artist or a musician, Aeris thought—why had he turned it to killing? "I can deal with any of the monsters we meet, but if I get injured, I wouldn't have a way to heal myself."

Aeris interrupted. "I thoughts SOLDIERS had, like, super-fast healing powers."

For a moment he seemed to hesitate—and then Sephiroth shook his head. "An urban legend." He said dismissively. "Our bodies are tougher and harder to injure, but our healing rate is only about three as fast as a normal human's. It's not enough to make a real difference in a life or death situation."

Aeris mulled over his information. If what he said were true, it would explain why he had been bleeding out so badly only a few minutes before. Aeris wondered what else about SOLDIERS was a myth.

"If you come along and heal me," he said, continuing—Aeris pulled out of her thoughts—"then I'll survive, and you also can make it safely to the exit. From there, you can run off and rejoin your friends."

Aeris's heart soared. To see the others again—to see Cloud! It hit her then how good it was to be alive. She looked at Sephiroth, frowning.

"What will you do?" She asked. "After we get to the exit?"

Sephiroth smiled. "That's for me to know." He said evenly.

Aeris scowled. No doubt that would be all she was going to get on the subject. Still, she had to know... "You're not going to try and bring down Meteor again, are you?"

Sephiroth threw his head back and laughed, the sound nearly making Aeris jump out of her skin. It was not a frightening or maniacal sound—rather, it was pleasing to the ear, like the tolling of deep-toned bells. Sephiroth looked at her, amused.

"You must think I'm stupid." He chuckled in humored tones, shaking his head. "After what happened last time, I'm not eager to repeat my...endeavor. Besides," Sephiroth said, shrugging, "I don't have anything to gain from it."

He didn't have anything to gain from it? Hadn't he wanted to become God, or something like that? Aeris was confused. There was more to his story than he was telling, but she couldn't put her finger on it. She would, though. She had to find out what he was up to.

_"And stop him if he's going to do something crazy again..."_

Sephiroth was looking at her with slightly narrowed eyes and Aeris suddenly felt like a bird under a cat's paw. "What?" She demanded a little hotly.

"Are you ready to go?" He asked.

Aeris felt a momentary flare of anger. He had just _assumed_ she was coming along with him! She felt insulted—that he had read her so well. But then again, what choice did she really have? It wasn't like she could handle the monsters in the crater alone...

"Yeah," she said, and off they went.

Author's note:

Ta daa! Chapter one done. Now, some of you may be thinking, "Oh my god! Aeris is so bitchy!" but remember—in the game, she never comes across as the oh-so-sweet, Belldandy-like persona that everyone depicts her to be. She's generous, yes, and nice; but it takes a rare type of woman to squeeze a guy into sexy clothing and have him hit on other men. Just because she wears pink does not mean she's an archetypal maiden. Aeris has color, damn it, and humanity. Plus, she's only 22—that's barely out of childhood, in my eyes. If she comes across as mean, GOOD! Anybody in her situation would be. However, she won't be such a witch throughout the entire story, so don't get too crazy out there...

Now, others of you may be thinking, "What the $&? Sephiroth's a wimp!" To an extent, that's true. Can you imagine the man just tipping over? But there's a reason for his weakness, which will be revealed later. As for his character; I never saw him as the cool, haughty aristocrat or the angst-ridden, outwardly seeming tough man. I write him as I saw him in the game, pre-madness; cool, calm, and ultimately calculating. In my opinion he likes to stand about twenty feet back from every situation so he can look at it with an objective eye; it makes things easier on him. Don't worry, though—there will be some Sephy-angst at some point in time. Just not soon.

So, with that all said...bye!


	2. Musing

An Unlikely Partnership 

This is an FFVII fanfic by kleptomanic0. The characters are not mine and never were. Otherwise FFVII would be in the works right now for some sweet graphics retooling. No voice acting, though; there'd be too much dispute over that.

A few hours later

Despite having been horribly injured a few hours before, Sephiroth set a fast pace, showing no signs of any weakness or fatigue. He bounded up craggy cliffs and walls of sheetrock with the reflexes of a mountain goat, leaving Aeris gaping and gasping in his wake. More than once she had to use her Cetra-hop to get to the place where he had been, only to see the silver banner of his hair disappearing off into another dark, far-off crevice.

_"After all his talk of 'sticking together, it's good for us', he sure is doing his best to leave me behind."_ Aeris thought darkly as she scaled up a cliff face, alternating moments of physical climbing with high Cetra-hops. Hauling herself onto a wide ledge, she took a moment to catch her breath and looked around. Sephiroth was nowhere to be seen. _"Damn it!" _She swore mentally as she scanned the area. _"Where is he?"_

"Do you need me to slow down?" He asked suddenly, dropping down from a higher cliff to land beside her. Aeris would have screamed, but she was too breathless and too tired to manage anything more than a sudden and violent twitch. "I'll take that as a yes," Sephiroth said and sat down, drawing his legs up to chest level and resting his arms atop his knees. "You're exhausted."

Aeris shot him a dirty look—it was _his_ fault she was so tired, but she didn't have the breath to say so. Instead she turned away from him and looked back the way they'd come.

She had to admit she was impressed. What seemed like miles and miles of stone fell away from her in a nearly vertical face, and far down below Aeris could see the wretched little network of stone ledges and tunnels the two of them had torturously navigated only scant hours before, ledges and tunnels that had been dimly lit by the Planet's heart of Lifestream. The rocks they had just climbed up were very dark, almost pitch-black, and Aeris wondered how she had managed to follow Sephiroth so closely. The man was dressed in all black himself. Well—his pants were black. He had lost his coat and gloves a while ago, but she wasn't sure where or even why. True, their brisk pace was good for keeping warm, but he couldn't be _that_ hot, could he?

Surreptitiously she glanced at him; he seemed to be napping, sitting up with his eyes closed and his head slightly bowed, his silvery hair framing his profile like an artist's matting. His hair, like his eyes, seemed to glow, except that Aeris was fairly sure that it wasn't actually doing so. It was just an effect of the darkness that made it seem that way.

Aeris closed her eyes and leaned back against the stone. If Sephiroth was going to take a nap, then so would she. The ledge she was sitting on was fairly wide and long, being roughly about as big as a twin-sized bed. Had she been alone, she would have stretched out on it and fallen asleep right then and there, but Sephiroth was taking up the whole right side of it, and Aeris was _not_ about to ask if she could put her feet or her head in his lap. She tucked her legs underneath her instead and tried to make herself comfortable. But her sitting position didn't really matter; Aeris was so exhausted that she fell asleep within seconds.

Sephiroth stayed awake. He wasn't keeping watch for monsters or anything like that—the ledge they were sitting on was too narrow for monsters to come at them, even if they could fly—rather, he was brooding. Their situation was pretty bad. They had no weapons, no materia, and, most importantly, no food. While he knew he could last without sustenance for about twenty days and without water for about ten (thank you _so much_, Hojo, you fucking bastard), Sephiroth was certain that his lovely companion was nowhere near as hardy.

_"I have to take care of her," _he thought, _"Otherwise, she will _not _take care of me."_

And that last part was important. Sephiroth looked down at the rips in his clothes, the blood-caked cuts in his gloves and pants that marked the places where the Curse of the Planet had taken hold of him. He had tried to heal himself before the pain and blood loss had taken its toll, but the feeble potion and the sliver of Restore materia he had found had done nothing more for him than create some pretty sparks. Aeris's healing powers, on the other hand, had brought him back almost to full vitality. Whether he liked it or not, his fate was chained to hers until he found a way to break the curse.

She tipped over in her sleep, her head falling squarely into his lap. Sephiroth jumped, startled; none too gently he picked her up and set her upright, folding his arms across his chest and crossing his legs to close himself up as much as possible. He didn't like being touched. He never had. It stemmed from his days as Hojo's lab rat and persisted until the current day. That was why he had done everything he possibly could to look otherworldly and frightening, including bleaching his long black hair white.

He reached up and plucked out a strand of hair. It had been a lark, really, that had made him bleach it. During the Midgar-Wutai war, he had looked too much like one of the enemy with his night-black hair and exotically slanted eyes. In an attempt to blend in, he'd tried to dye his hair blonde, but the dye had reacted with his strange body chemistry and turned white instead of yellow. Before he could dye it a more normal color, he had made his first major victory and his face had been broadcast all over the world - framed by white hair. So he'd kept the dye job. He'd had it for so long that he was more used to it than his natural color. The bad thing about dye, though, was that it faded. Sephiroth could see the dark roots of his hair starting to come in. He felt a surge of worry, but shook it off. So what if the white dye grew out? It would make him harder to recognize. And that was a good thing, what with his most recent actions...

Twisting the hair around his fingers, Sephiroth wondered how he could have been so stupid. Blowing up the world to absorb the Planet's healing energy—even if Cloud and his little cadre hadn't stopped him, he probably would have been killed anyway, what with Meteor and the Planet blowing up in his face. And how could he live, if the planet that sustained him was gone or so badly injured that it was useless? Sephiroth cursed himself for his stupidity, and cursed himself again for his weakness, which had made him believe Jenova's lies and sink deeper into a well of pain and self-doubt that he thought he had closed off long ago. He didn't need a mother, or even someone to love him. He cared for himself, and that was enough.

Thinking such thoughts, Sephiroth closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

Author's note:

The idea of Sephiroth dying his hair didn't come to me until I was typing on this story. But now that I think about it, it seems more and more likely. I mean, think—Lucrecia had dark hair and no traits of albinism (which would lead to white hair). Both Hojo and Vincent (take your pick for his father) both had black hair. Logically, then, Sephiroth's hair would be _dark_. And he'd look half-Wutaiese, too. Or maybe a quarter. We don't know what Vincent is. So yeah, Sephiroth dyes his hair. I know it can be argued that it happened naturally due to all the freaky experiments that were done to him as a child, but I like the dyeing.


	3. It's what's for dinner

An Unlikely Partnership 

/\/\/\

This is an FFVII fanfic by kleptomanic0. The characters are not mine and never were. Otherwise on the Shinra building, you'd actually get to kill Rufus. God, it pissed me off when he got away on that helicopter!

/\/\/\

Aeris's eyelashes fluttered, first in dreams, and then slowly as she awoke, wincing a little as she moved her cramped body. Never had she slept so uncomfortably, and that was saying something. She'd camped out on railroad tracks, mountain trails, uneven turf, and in all sorts of weather—but all those times she had been lying down, covered with a blanket, and sometimes snuggled up with a certain someone... Not now, though. Her neck, back, and hips were aching from her horribly curled sleeping position.

Sighing, she untwisted herself and rubbed her neck, wincing as muscle pain zinged throughout her shoulder. Glancing over at Sephiroth, she sourly wondered if he felt as wretched as she did.

Aeris blinked. And then she gasped.

Somehow during the night, a monster had sneaked up on the two of them and ripped Sephiroth to shreds! Blood was dripping sluggishly from huge wounds all over his body, and Aeris nearly threw up when she saw the crimson glistening of his intestines and the white gleam of his arm bones. A wave of nausea swept over her so powerfully that she teetered, nearly falling off the ledge. But Aeris soon collected herself, and quickly checked her body. Had she been hurt too? No, she instantly realized. There wasn't a mark on her. But Sephiroth...

She felt an odd stirring of emotion, one that accompanied an equally odd thought. Maybe he had gotten those wounds..._protecting_ her?

Oh, Planet no! The thought of Sephiroth throwing himself on top of her to spare her from an Evil Eye or something similarly disgusting filled her with horror. He had killed her! Why would he save her?

_"Maybe he's got something evil in mind for me," _Aeris thought darkly, clutching herself, _"like rape. After all, there's no one around to hear me scream..."_

She seriously debated the idea of letting him bleed to death. She had made the mistake of healing him yesterday. Shame on him that he'd fooled her once, but if he got her to heal him twice...

"Shit," Aeris grumbled, suddenly remembering that she didn't know the way out. She'd have to heal him after all.

Reaching deep inside herself, she called her powers and sent them flowing into Sephiroth's body, determinedly knitting skin and muscle and bone until there wasn't a mark on Sephiroth's body. Somewhere in the middle of the healing he regained consciousness and glanced at her, his eyes barely open.

"Thank you," he murmured when she was done.

Aeris glared at him and scooted away; for some of his larger injuries, she'd had to get in close to heal them properly. "Don't think this'll get you in my pants!" She snapped and immediately felt stupid for saying it. Aeris glared at him defiantly when he stared and then burst out laughing.

"What gave you the idea I _wanted_ to be in them?" He nearly cackled, looking at her with an expression of amusement in his eyes. They flared brilliantly in the dark caverns, sending motes of light flickering over the rocks. "Sorry, but I don't really like women."

Aeris stared. "You..." She stuttered. "You're gay?"

"I was in the army," Sephiroth said, grinning—yes, actually grinning—at her. "What do you think?" He gazed at her a few seconds more and snickered, shaking his head. "Don't think this'll get you in my pants...hehehe..."

Aeris couldn't decide whether to be relieved or offended. On the one hand she was glad nothing was going to happen to her. On the other...well, wasn't she pretty? And wouldn't Sephiroth notice that, even if he _were_ gay? Jeez! And he didn't have to make so much fun of her...

To his credit, though, Sephiroth didn't laugh at her too long. Looking at her after a few more seconds of smothered chuckling, he asked with a smile, "Are you ready to go?" and Aeris fixed him with a glare.

"I _have_ been." She said coldly and Sephiroth rose to his feet.

"This way then," he said, and hopped up the cliff. Aeris cursed under her breath and scrambled after him.

A few hours later their pace wasn't nearly as energetic.

"We need food," Sephiroth said firmly when they sat down for a breather. Aeris collapsed to her knees, gasping like a beached fish. Sephiroth was breathing a little hard, but nothing more.

"Yeah," Aeris gasped, sitting up. Anything to make Sephiroth stop running around like a manic rabbit. And now that he'd mentioned it, Aeris became aware of a stabbing pain in her abdomen that had nothing to do with muscle cramps.

"Wait here," he said, getting to his feet. "The next cavern over, if I remember correctly, should have a few lakes. You eat fish, don't you?"

No, she didn't, but she wasn't in a place to be picky. Aeris nodded at him and took the opportunity to catch her breath as he got up and walked off. Flopping onto the ground she closed her eyes and just let herself breathe.

It was very silent in the great crater. All Aeris could hear was her own breathing, and sometimes the faint drumming of blood in her ears. When she opened her eyes, she gazed up at the dark rock ceiling above her and idly wondered how long it was to the surface. How wonderful it would be, to hear the birds sing again! To feel the wind on her face. To be welcomed and loved and held in his arms again...

"Cloud." She mouthed his name, smiling as she said it. The last time she had seen him, his beautiful blue eyes had been filled with a grief so raw that she had ached to clean it away. She tried to imagine the happiness his eyes would hold, soon, when they met again, and then frowned. How could she find him again? The Planet was large, and she was only one person...

_"Maybe I can ask Sephiroth to find him," _she thought briefly, and immediately shook her head. Bad idea. Sephiroth had done enough mucking in Cloud's poor brain. Even for something as innocent as locating him, she wasn't going to ask for his help. Not on her life, and certainly not on Cloud's sanity.

The tap-tap-tap of feet on stone made her look up and she stared as Sephiroth walked toward her, two large and pale cave fish in one hand. Soaking wet from his sojourn into the lake, his clothes were plastered to his powerful frame, exposing every line of muscle and highlighting them in stark detail. His powerful chest gleamed, and Aeris gulped when he tossed his wet hair over his shoulder, shaking it out of his eyes. She had noticed how good-looking he was, but only in a vague, absentminded sort of manner. This way, dripping with water and all but naked, his downright sexiness was impossible to ignore. But he was still evil! Very evil.

Mmm, evil...

"I don't suppose you can set a fire, can you?" He asked when he reached her. Aeris shook herself out of her reverie almost physically.

"No, most of my powers run to healing." She said, and jumped when he tossed the cave fish into her lap. Thankfully it was dead, but Aeris could still feel the faint glimmer of life running through it and she felt nauseous. She couldn't eat something that had been so recently alive...

Biting her lip, she looked at Sephiroth and gasped aloud when she saw him rip the fish's head off and gut it with his bare hands. Had she anything to throw up, she would have, but all she could do was stare and heave in horror. Sephiroth didn't seem to notice. When he bit into the fish, however, Aeris shrieked and covered her eyes. Sephiroth blinked at her and lifted his head from the fish.

"I take it," he said, "you've never eaten sushi."

"That's _disgusting!_" Aeris screamed, violently shaking her head. "That fish—it was just alive! And now you're...you're..."

"I'm eating it," Sephiroth said, his voice just a touch defiant, "though I tell you now I'm not going to enjoy it. Raw fish without seasoning tastes nasty, but it's all we have. What are you, a vegetarian?"

"I'm a vegan!" Aeris yelled, and dropped her hands from her face in fury when Sephiroth laughed.

"A vegan?" He exclaimed, his voice incredulous. "Why would you do that to yourself?"

"Because you can have a perfectly fine meal without eating animal products or by-products!" Aeris shot back. "Humans have risen far enough on the food chain that we don't need to take lives to feed ourselves!"

"In dire situations we do." Sephiroth said, and looked at his fish. "Ugh, it's still got scales on it."

"Monster!" Aeris cried and Sephiroth looked at her, annoyed.

"Wail at me all you like," he said caustically, "but you're not going to stop me from keeping myself alive." He took the second fish from her lap and put it in his, adding, "If you choose to starve to death, that's your problem."

"Not _just_ mine!" Aeris snapped, jabbing one finger into his arm. "What happens if you get injured again, huh? Who's gonna heal you?"

Sephiroth glared at her, his green eyes narrowed to slits. Aeris glared right back. For a long time they glowered at each other, their faces mere inches apart.

"I will not hunt all over the caverns to find _moss_ for you to snack on." He said softly, his voice low and dangerous. "And I will not starve for your tree-hugging sensibilities. I'm eating the fish."

And defiantly he took a bite out of it, ripping off a wet chunk of the pale white flesh. Aeris's stomach roiled, but she turned firmly away and averted her gaze.

What was wrong with her? She'd never gone on a tirade like that before. Aeris had learned long ago that most people hated being preached to when it came to food, and that it was her unique relationship with the Planet that had turned her into a vegan. It had taken her a while to understand that most people just didn't see things her way, but she had been fine with it. Really, she had. But now...

The sounds of Sephiroth eating raw fish made Aeris's stomach turn. She could just tell that he was glaring at her while he was doing it, too. For a moment she felt a surge of irritation. What was he, a teenager, trying to deliberately spite her? Aeris vowed not to lose her temper and looked away, valiantly ignoring him as much as she could.

Sephiroth tore into the fish, watching as Aeris twitched with every meaty rip. He felt a vicious sort of satisfaction in making her uncomfortable, even though he knew he was being stupid. What good would it do to piss her off? She was the only one who could heal the Curse of the Planet, and without her help he was as good as dead.

But the _nerve_ of her! Calling him 'monster' and all sorts of other things when he was just trying to survive! It wasn't like he was forcibly shoving the fish down her throat or anything like that...

Sephiroth paused. What the hell was she going to eat? And drink? If she didn't take sustenance she was going to die. And _that_ would be...

"Shit." He muttered, putting the fish down. Aeris glanced over her shoulder, looking at him coldly.

"What?" She asked sullenly.

Sephiroth set his half-eaten fish down and got up, brushing scales off his pants. Stalking back to the water caverns, he called irritably, "You've got to eat something!" and disappeared.

Aeris stared at him. He was going to get food for her. He was actually going to look for food for her. Amazing. But at the same time...

Aeris didn't want to admit it, but she felt bad. She'd shrieked her beliefs at him, called him a monster, and here he was going off to provide for her. It wasn't fair. It wasn't right. And it wasn't like her. _She_ should be going off to find something edible, not him...

A cry of pain from the next cavern over made her gasp and Aeris shot to her feet, her eyes wide. What had attacked Sephiroth now?

Sprinting into the next cavern, she found him on the floor, clutching his stomach and writhing in agony. Dropping to her knees by his side, Aeris cried, "What happened? What did you do?" as she used her powers to heal him. There was an unnatural taint to his energy that she immediately recognized as poison. "Did you eat something poisonous?" She demanded as he sat up, gasping and clutching his chest.

"Better me than you," he replied. "I can recover from it. You can't."

Again, Aeris felt guilty. Sephiroth opened one hand, revealing a dark spray of leaves in his palm. "Well, these are no good." He muttered, and got to his feet.

"Wait," Aeris mumbled, also rising. "I should be doing this, not you. Let me look."

Sephiroth glanced at her. "Oh?" He asked archly. "No longer 'Miss High-and-Mighty, are we?"

Aeris glared at him, but fell short. "You hunt for your food," she said, "and I'll hunt for mine. Okay? Then we won't bother each other."

Sephiroth gazed at her, his green eyes narrowed slightly and his lips parted in an unreadable expression. Aeris fidgeted under his eyes, uncomfortable. A long moment passed. Then he shrugged and rolled his eyes.

"Fine," he said, "look for your food. But give it to me first. If you eat something and die..."

"I know," she said quickly, bobbing her head, and Sephiroth walked off to finish his fish. Aeris began to look around.

It was clear where the poisonous plant had come from, Aeris saw as she peered into the water. With no sunlight to make plants photosynthesize on the surface, all that there were by way of vegetables were clumps of strange weeds down on the cavern lake's sides and bottom. Aeris gazed at the weeds until she saw something devoid of warning colors or unusual shapes, two things that usually signified poison. Keeping her eyes on the weeds, Aeris quickly undressed (no sense in getting her only set of clothes soaking wet) and plunged into the water.

Sephiroth had gone back to the first cavern, picked up his fish, and then walked back, munching on the first carcass and carrying the second in one hand. He came back into the cavern lake area just as Aeris stepped out of her clothes. The legendary SOLDIER paused and looked on in appreciation. He'd been telling the truth when he'd told Aeris he was gay, but that didn't stop him from admiring a fine piece of womanhood. Damn! Aeris was petite, but also perfectly proportioned. Perky breasts, a slim waist, and lovely round hips with a pair of the finest legs he had ever seen. If he hadn't known what a princess she could be, he might have swung the other way. Aeris did not see him admiring her figure as she dove elegantly into the water, so Sephiroth sat down by her clothes and admired her some more as she plucked a few plants from the lake bottom.

Tearing a handful of greens from the soil, Aeris kicked off the sandy floor and swam up toward the top, her lungs tight with air. She was surprised she had been able to make it so far down; when she'd been alive, she'd been a decent swimmer, but only a beginning one. In fact, Cloud had taught her how when they'd been crossing the river in his buggy and made camp for the night, and she hadn't really been swimming after then. Maybe she was just naturally good, Aeris mused as she swam up to the surface and took a deep gulp of air. Tossing her greens onto the stone edge of the lake, she took a few minutes to collect her breath and pull her long wet hair out of her face.

_"Now to give these to Sephiroth," _she thought and reached for her clothes. She froze as she saw the gleam of a patent-leather boot, and slowly she looked up to see Sephiroth looking at her, picking his teeth with a long fishbone. There was a look of definite amusement in his eyes, as well as something she wouldn't have expected from a supposedly gay man.

"You!" She screeched, flushing with indignation. Grabbing her long hair to cover herself, she yelled, "I thought you didn't swing this way!"

"I'm just looking out for you." Sephiroth said innocently. Pointing at her with the fishbone, he added, "What if a monster came at you while you were swimming? Who'd protect you, hmm?"

Aeris glared, but grudgingly acknowledged he made sense. "Just turn around so I can get dressed!"

He pointed at the weeds. "Wait. If these turn out to be poisonous, won't you have to go down again anyway? Getting undressed twice is a waste of energy."

Aeris threw the plants at him, making him laugh. Sephiroth pulled a leaf off the supple stalk and popped it into his mouth, chewing thoughtfully.

"Tangy," he commented, "succulent. Reminds me of cactus."

"Is it safe?" Aeris asked.

Sephiroth chewed a few moments more, and then nodded.

"Good," she said, nodding firmly. "Now, turn around! I want to get out of the water." Sephiroth did so obediently, and Aeris hauled herself out of the lake, water pouring off her body in sheets. Wringing the water out of her hair, she brushed off as much of the excess liquid as she could before putting on her clothes and shoes. Meanwhile, Sephiroth dug into the second fish, and Aeris did not wince as much when he pulled its head off and gutted it. She had already picked up her greens and dug into them with alacrity. For a long time, the only sounds in the cavern were those of eating.

/\/\/\

Author's note:

This chapter came together fairly fast. I like writing the verbal battles between Aeris and Sephiroth, and the mistaken impressions she gets of him too are really funny. Don't worry, some of you readers, Sephiroth is not one-hundred-percent gay. And I'm pretty sure that at some point Aeris's vegan-ness will break down too. They're in a life-or-death situation, after all, even though it may not come across as such...

As always, read and review! Especially review. I like to keep track of who peruses my stories so I can thank them specially at the end of the production.

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	4. Sephiroth's wars

An Unlikely Partnership 

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This is an FFVII fanfic by kleptomanic0. The characters are not mine and never were. Otherwise Yuffie and Vincent would be _proper_ characters, not secret characters, and have their own CG moments of glory. I swear, those two are the worst kept secrets in video game history.

/\/\/\

Once they had eaten and rested, the two travelers moved on. Aeris was relaxed despite her rough dinner, and she did not really pay attention to her surroundings. That was why when the Allemange dropped down from the ceiling and flew at them, screeching, she stayed where she was and blinked stupidly. The thought that went through her head was _"Oh. Well, that's unexpected..."_

Luckily Sephiroth was not stunned. With the reflexes that had made him famous he swept Aeris out of harm's way with one hand and scooped up a rock with the other. Then, pivoting neatly on one foot, he hurled the stone at the offensive creature, smiling in satisfaction as the rock, thrown with all the superhuman strength a top SOLDIER could muster, went right through the beast's giant eyeball and exploded out the other side. With a dying shriek the monster toppled to the ground, and as its meaty carcass hit the floor with a wet thump, a weapon skittered out of its outstretched wings. Sephiroth ran forward to investigate, and a grunt of irritation he picked up a fanciful gold-headed staff.

"Well, this is useless," he muttered as he turned it to and fro. Clearly it had been made for a woman, being as slender and delicate as it was. Aeris, rising from the floor, gasped in surprise.

"The Princess Guard!" She exclaimed, running forward and taking it from Sephiroth, who looked at her in surprise. "This was the last staff I used," she explained, running her hands fondly over its lacquered surface. It seemed to warm up under her grasp and Aeris had the fleeting fancy that it was pleased to see her. Or maybe that was because she was just happy to see it. Inspecting the materia, Aeris touched the orbs to identify them and blinked in surprise. "Oh! It seems the Planet is still taking care of me..."

"What do you mean?" Sephiroth asked, looking at the staff.

"Well, I'm pretty sure that these weren't the materia I had in there last..." Aeris said, turning the staff around. Materia of all colors glowed in the staff's slots and she ran her fingers over them, naming each piece as she touched it. "Restore, Revive, All, HP Plus, MP Plus, Barrier and...Final Attack?"

"Let me see that." Sephiroth took her staff and inspected it. "What, no attack materia?"

She shrugged. "Oh well. Can't have it all, I suppose." Aeris frowned as Sephiroth began to rearrange her materia. "What are you doing?"

"Getting this into order." He muttered, efficiently popping the magic spheres from slot to slot. "Is this all you have?"

"Well, it's all that was in the staff..."

"Do you have armor on?"

Aeris checked and sure enough, there was a Dragon Bangle on her arm. But no materia. Sephiroth took this in with a glance and snorted in annoyance. He handed the staff back to her and looked around. "Well, let's get going," he said, and walked off. Aeris followed after him, twirling the staff in her fingertips so the elaborate head spun in golden circles.

They walked on for several hours—or rather, Sephiroth walked and Aeris jogged, seeing as he had the longer legs and could stroll faster than most people could easily walk. Luckily, he noticed when she was getting tired and they took a rest in a small bubble of a cavern, Sephiroth leaning against one rounded wall and Aeris sitting down on the floor. The Cetra pulled out a bundle of leaves she had stuffed into her jacket earlier and began to munch on them to quell her hunger pangs. Sephiroth studied her for a moment before looking around and stepping away from the wall.

"I'm going to hunt," he said.

Aeris looked at him curiously. "Hunt what?" She asked. "I don't think there are any more underground lakes around here..."

"There aren't," Sephiroth said. "But there is meat, so..."

Aeris thought for a moment and blanched as something suddenly occurred to her. "Oh, sick! You're not going to eat a monster, are you?"

"I might," Sephiroth said seriously. "It wouldn't be the first time. The Wutaiese did a very good job of cutting off our supplies during the War."

Aeris perked up. "The War?"

Sephiroth frowned at her. "You don't know about the War?"

She shook her head. "Not really. I mean, I knew it was going on, but Mom never read the papers or watched TV, so..."

"You do know we won, right?" Sephiroth asked, his face perfectly blank.

Aeris glared at him. "I lived in the slums, not a cave."

"Just checking."

Aeris popped a leaf into her mouth and chewed it thoughtfully. "So...what was it like?"

"The War?" Sephiroth inquired. When Aeris nodded, he said simply, "Fun."

"Fun?" Aeris repeated, her eyebrows shooting up in skepticism.

Sephiroth nodded. "War is complete chaos. On the battlefield, the strongest one rules, and, well..." He grinned. Sobering, he added, "I'm sure to the others it was hell, but for me, it was paradise."

"You like killing?" Aeris asked with more than a hint of acid in her voice.

"Killing is easy," Sephiroth said. "But no. What I liked about the War was that there wasn't anyone who could tell me what to do, no one to make me do something I didn't want to. I was in the commander-in-chief of the combined armed forces; even President Shinra couldn't order me."

Aeris's eyes widened in surprise. "Really?"

Sephiroth nodded and glanced off to the side. "Of course, once the War ended, I was stripped of a lot of my so-called 'emergency powers' and became something of a glorified clerk... Filing reports, writing condolence letters, sitting in executive meetings..."

"Sounds fun," Aeris said, chewing another leaf.

Sephiroth smiled insincerely, his eyes narrowing. "Just wonderful."

"So is that why you took the Nibelheim mission?" Aeris asked, looking at him. "Because I've always wondered why they sent a hotshot like you to do something as simple as kill monsters."

Sephiroth nodded. "It was an easy mission, but I would have done anything to get out of that building—out of Midgar. The noise and the tedium were driving me insane."

Aeris frowned. "The tedium I get, but...the noise?"

Sephiroth tapped his ear. "The downside of supersensitive hearing is that you pick sounds whether you want to or not. The traffic in Midgar was driving me crazy."

Aeris wondered if Cloud's hearing was that sensitive, but all she could recall about listening was Red XIII—no, Nanaki—catching noises before anybody else did. He was AVALANCHE's pre-emptive materia.

"I thought it was the stuff in the Shinra Mansion that did that," Aeris said before she could stop herself.

Sephiroth looked at her sharply, his suddenly hostile emerald gaze making her breath catch. Minutes ticked by. Then, imperceptibly, he relaxed and sighed.

"Yes and no, in a fashion," he said. "I knew I was an experiment—I grew up in Hojo's laboratory, after all; I'd have to be braindead if I didn't remember that. Finding out I was something of a test-tube child didn't surprise me.

"No, it was finding out exactly _what_ was in me that, as you say, drove me insane. I always wondered what I was, and those journals answered a lot of my questions." He smiled and asked, "How did you feel when you realized you had a higher purpose?"

Aeris stopped eating and looked at him for a long moment, her eyes turning hard. "Keep talking like that," she said, "and I won't heal you anymore."

Sephiroth held up his hands in a placating gesture. "It was a rhetorical question. I'm just saying—"

"I get what you're saying," Aeris said sharply. "So that was why you set Nibelheim on fire and killed all those people?"

"Nibelheim was already on fire by the time I got out there," Sephiroth replied. "Summer lightning, as I recall. And I killed some people, true, but that was because they grabbed me."

"They grabbed you?" Aeris repeated incredulously.

"I really, really hate being touched." Sephiroth said evenly.

Evidently.

"Besides, I had more important things to attend to," Sephiroth said, lacing his hands together and resting his elbows on his knees. "Jenova had the final answers to my questions."

"Jenova?" Aeris inquired. "Not...Mother?"

Was it her imagination, or did Sephiroth look embarrassed? "I've learned that a genetic progenitor is no substitute for a real parent," he replied. "And between you and me, she was a one bitch of a taskmistress."

Something about Sephiroth saying the word 'bitch' struck Aeris as funny and she giggled despite herself. Sephiroth continued talking, either ignoring her giggling or taking it as a cue to talk on.

"She led me on with promises of telling me what I was really alive for, but if I didn't like her plans or displayed even the slightest hint of individuality, she gave me the most godawful migraines on the Planet. Once I banged my head against a wall until I nearly had brain damage just to make them stop."

Aeris stopped laughing. He was serious, she realized. Disquiet began to build in Aeris's chest as Sephiroth continued talking to her, or rather, at her.

"I didn't see any real point in killing you—all I had to do was take the White Materia away, and then you wouldn't be able to summon Holy—but Jenova had a personal vendetta against anything with Cetra blood, and she made me feel like my brain feel like it was covered in acid until I killed you.

"And that's to say nothing about the talking. Do you have any idea how painful it is to be used as someone's mouthpiece? It's like suffocating, only worse. All of a sudden, your vocal cords, your lungs, your diaphragm, they're all being manually operated by someone else who hasn't the vaguest idea of what they're doing. Not to mention that she made me say some very stupid things..." Sephiroth snorted. "They will live again as part of me—what a load of crap. I can't believe I bought into her bullshit..."

It sounded like Jenova had been to Sephiroth what Sephiroth had been to Cloud. Aeris couldn't help but feel just a little sorry for him and instantly she was disgusted at herself. The man had _killed_ her for the Planet's sake. He was not going to get on her good side so easily, even if he hadn't done it of his own volition.

Sephiroth rested his chin atop his laced fingers and got a look on his face that was quintessential brooding; the look, however, was somewhat spoiled by his neon-like Mako eyes, which shone through his thick, dark lashes and gave the impression that he was staring at her. Aeris ate some leaves and tried not to be creeped out.

"Stay here," Sephiroth said suddenly, rising to his feet. "Don't move until I come back."

"Where are you going?" Aeris asked, suddenly worried.

"To get something to eat," Sephiroth said. "I'll find some moss for you."

Aeris couldn't decide if he was mocking her or being considerate; his tone of voice could have applied to either. In the end she decided to take the comment graciously.

"Thanks, but what if you get injured?" Aeris asked, looking up and him and frowning.

An interesting play of emotions ran over Sephiroth's face, most of them too quick to catch. Aeris did recognize annoyance, however, and also chagrin. She guessed he had just remembered he wasn't invincible anymore.

"Then I'll crawl back," he said shortly. "Just wait here."

He stalked off and left Aeris by herself in the little cavern, munching on her leaves and spinning her materia in the Princess Guard's slots.

Author's note:

Loooooots of meaningless ramble in this one, but it just flowed so easily... As always, read and review. Constructive criticism is always appreciated.

And if you get the chance, check out the fic "Why Waist Length?". It's fairly recent but absolute gold. Kudos to the author and the concept, which is a different look at Sephiroth's descent into madness. Fast-moving midgets, Sephiroth says, "Roll over," hahaha...


	5. Grabby hands

An Unlikely Partnership 

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This is an FFVII fanfic by kleptomanic0. The characters are not mine and never were. Otherwise we'd see Cloud in drag in full CG. Then that'd settle the question of whether he was wearing a Western gown or a kimono, because as my friend Nerissa pointed out, he took such tiny little steps and walked so demurely...

- - - - -

After lunch, a few hours later

- - - - -

"Kyaa!"

Aeris's sudden scream made Sephiroth whip around and for a moment he took in the strangeness of Aeris crumpled on the ground, red-faced with pain, as her leg blended into the stone floor. Sephiroth walked over quickly and knelt by her.

"What's wrong?" He asked as she tried vainly to pull her leg out. Exasperated at her feeble efforts, Sephiroth grasped her leg below the knee and pulled up, dragging her leg out of a small, crumbling hole in the ground. Her skin was scratched and bleeding, but nothing too severe.

Aeris drew her leg back and healed it, saying, "I think the stone's rotten. It just gave way while I was walking."

Sephiroth looked down the hole. He could faintly see the outlines of a cavern beneath them, but nothing too definitive. "Looks like a pocket in the rock," he said, looking back at Aeris. "We'll have to be careful; this whole floor could be full of them."

Aeris looked nervously around at the deceptively smooth, even stone floor. "So what should I do? Tap the floor with my staff?"

"If you like," Sephiroth said, then frowned. "Though it's strange that I didn't fall in. I certainly weigh more than you do, so if the floor should have given away under anything, it should have been m—"

The floor suddenly sagged and Aeris shrieked as the ground suddenly broke into tons of wet rock-dirt that sucked her right under. Then she was suddenly flying upwards, dragged on by a pain that was coming from her hair.

"OWWW!" Aeris screamed, clutching her scalp and kicking as the floor beneath them sank into the void. Sephiroth had leapt up and grabbed a stalactite on the ceiling, saving Aeris from the collapsing floor by snatching her braid. "Ow! Ow! Ow!"

"Oh, shut up. It's just your hair," he said, not quite able to hide his smirk, before slinging her to a series of cliffs on the far side of the room. Aeris hit the floor and rolled, stopping with a yelp when her back slammed roughly into the wall. Picking herself up, Aeris glared evilly at Sephiroth as he leapt from stalactite to stalactite and landed gracefully next to her. Forgetting her wariness and the fact that he had killed her, Aeris slapped him hard on the chest, her palm making a satisfying whack that echoed throughout the chamber.

"That hurt!" She snapped angrily.

Sephiroth was not bothered by the slap. "It was either your hair or your dress. Or would you rather I'd grabbed you here?" He asked, reaching for her bust, and Aeris slapped him on the chest again. Sephiroth withdrew his hand, smirking. "Let's go," before walking off. Aeris vowed not to heal him and then remembered he knew the way out. Fuck!

The next room also had a sinking floor, as did the one after that and the one after that. After the third room, Aeris grabbed Sephiroth's hand.

"What are you doing?" He asked suspiciously, pulling his hand away.

"If we're going to encounter another sinking floor, I'd rather you'd be holding onto my hand than my hair, my jacket, or my arm," she replied in annoyance. "You nearly dislocated my shoulder that last time."

"Gravity nearly dislocated your shoulder," Sephiroth said. "So you must be exerting considerable downward force."

It took Aeris a moment to figure out what he was saying. "Did you just call me fat!"

"Obliquely," he agreed and laughed when she slapped him on the arm. "You know that doesn't hurt me."

"But it makes me feel better," she grumbled and yelped as she sank into the floor. Sephiroth snatched her around the waist and leapt for the ceiling again.

"Oh, give me a break!" Aeris yelled in exasperation. . "How many more of these are there?"

"I don't know," Sephiroth said, looking down at the rapidly expanding black pit that had once been a floor. "The Lifestream blasting out of the Crater must have weakened the rock. We'll have to walk very carefully." Suddenly he frowned and looked at her. "Don't your people fly?"

She ignored the vaguely derogatory tone in his voice and said, "Full-blooded Cetra can fly, but all I can do are long hops and maybe a hover."

"Pity." He said. "You could fly over these if you were full-blooded."

"I know." She said, nettled. Then she looked up at him, frowning. "Wait... Aren't you able to fly too?"

A weird look came over Sephiroth's face. "One of the downsides of sanity," he said finally, "is remembering that gravity applies to you."

"So you can't fly?"

"Not anymore."

Aeris sighed and Sephiroth tossed her over to the next cliff. This time, though, she was ready and cushioned her impact with the same force she used to float, a sort of air bubble that wrapped around her and moved her around when she encountered it. Sephiroth launched himself off the stalactite and landed next to her, slowing when he hit her bubble of air. If he noticed the bubble, he didn't say anything about it. After dusting his hands off on his pants, Sephiroth walked on and Aeris followed behind.

- - - - -

Author's note:

I didn't plan on this chapter happening, but it felt wrong to stop the flow. And the image of Aeris swinging by her hair makes me giggle. Wow, I'm making these characters do stupid things... And to think they haven't even met up with AVALANCHE yet! The madness continues.

- - - - -


	6. Mutual rudeness

An Unlikely Partnership 

- - - - -

This is an FFVII fanfic by kleptomanic0. The characters are not mine and never were. Otherwise it wouldn't take such a #$&'in long time to kill the Ruby and Emerald WEAPONS.

- - - - -

Aeris got tired very easily. Sephiroth noted her slowing step and her fluttering eyelids after three more hours of hiking and finally stopped, finding a small niche in the wall that would be fairly proof against monsters. It was a testament to the Ancient's exhaustion that she did not fight him when he told her to get into the wall; she merely climbed in and immediately fell asleep, curling her long braid into a rough sort of pillow. As soon as she was well and truly asleep, Sephiroth reached in and pulled her out of the niche, slinging her over one shoulder. It would be a while before he got tired yet, and why not use that time to cover more ground? After all, he didn't like being in the Pit, as he had come to think of it, any more than she did.

He hiked on at a slightly brisker pace than the one he used with her; her legs were so short that he was actually forced to _walk_, not stride as was his wont. Chagrin built in him as after the first hour, Sephiroth actually found himself getting tired. So, the Curse of the Planet was more inclusive that he had thought.

_"It's not just reliving the Omnislash over and over again—it's the destruction of all my Jenova-based powers. Damn it. What am I now, no stronger than a normal First Class SOLDIER? Or weaker even than that?"_

Suddenly feeling hunted, Sephiroth broke into a light jog and checked his surroundings more often.

_"Planet,"_ he thought, not really expecting the rock to respond, _"You brought me back to life to torture me, but you revived this Ancient as her reward for her service. Her chances of survival would be much better if I were stronger._

_"Then again, if I were stronger, I'd probably leave her behind. She's really only good for healing me. And staving off the quiet. If it weren't for her chatter, I'd keep thinking, and—_

_"Damn it. I'm thinking now. Why? Thinking gets me in trouble. What was it that Zack said? If you think only about yourself, you'll be unhappy? That seems to be true in my case, but when I start thinking about other people, I get annoyed with them. So much of humanity is stupid..."_

The stupid faces he hated most flickered before his eyes. President Shinra, who had signed off on creating his miserable existence; Hojo, who had made it that way; every petty officer and soldier who had tried to block him... How he had hated being subjugated to them, having to do everything that they said for fear of going back to the lab, for losing what power, no matter how little, he had out of it. To be the complete master of his fate, that was why he had joined Jenova.

_"For a while, it was wonderful. But afterwards..."_

He didn't like to dwell on that time. It might have been easier if his thoughts had been jumbled or something; maybe he could have told himself that he really had gone crazy. But the memories of his time with Jenova and his ill-fated attempt to destroy the Planet were crystal clear, so sharp they nearly hurt, and Sephiroth sourly wondered if that was the way he perceived them or if the Planet was trying to torture him again.

_"By making me think."_

He broke into a marching song as he jogged, dredging it up from somewhere in the far places of his memory. It was not the official Shin-Ra marching chant—he was not going to sing that thing's praises—but rather one of the bawdy tunes that the soldiers had sung in Wutai to make the miles pass faster to and from battles or bases. Fourteen and uncertain, he had not joined in, but the memory of all those voices bursting forth in gruff song still stayed with him. Their solidarity had really been quite touching...

"I have a lovely girl at home,

Her face looks like a hog's,

I put a paper bag on it every time we snog.

Her hair is a great big stringy mess,

Her eyes are muddy green,

And the noises that we make border on obscene.

But we don't care that the neighbors do,

So we'll keep 'em up all night,

And after all that good, good sex, I'm ready to fight!"

"What?" Aeris gasped, sitting up.

Sephiroth glanced at her. "What?"

"What are you singing?" She demanded incredulously. A pause, and then she asked, "And why are you carrying me?"

"It's faster," he replied. "And you're tired. As for the singing, it makes the time go by."

"Well, it's a horrible song," she said, sniffing.

"But it keeps the beat," he said, starting to smile. "And nasty songs perfectly suit soldiers."

She scoffed and muttered under her breath, not realizing he could hear her. "Zack and Cloud never sang nasty songs."

"Cloud's no soldier," Sephiroth laughed, and he felt Aeris's glare. "Either the special designation or the profession; he doesn't follow orders well and he has a problem with authority. Zack—this would be Zachariah Jennings?"

"Zachariah?" She exclaimed. "Did he have spiky black hair?"

"Yes," Sephiroth said, grinning. "He really hated his first name—said it sounded too boondocky; his word, not mine." A flicker of memory went through him and he sighed, saying, "Too bad he's not here to enjoy it." He blinked, and remembered what he had been saying earlier. "As for Zachariah, he thought these jodies were hilarious. Even though he joined SOLDIER after the war, he insisted on coming up with new ones, worse ones that became new classics. Do you want to hear?"

"No!" She exclaimed. Then, a few seconds later, "Why not?" Sephiroth obliged.

"Her breasts, they look like mountains,

Her stomach is a plain,

Her hair is like a great forest,

And her eyes are wet with rain.

Like the earth, she's bountiful,

And one kiss gives me luck.

I need everything I can take,

So we make a point to—"

"Stop." Aeris said at once and Sephiroth laughed.

"Didn't like that one, did you?" He asked, glancing at her. "I'm sure he wasn't talking about you. Zack loved women."

"Zack?" She said, looking at him. "Not Zachariah?"

"It's a fun name to say, but not when he's not around."

Aeris fell silent. "That's right." She said softly. "You killed him, didn't you?"

"I wounded him," Sephiroth corrected. "The injuries I gave him were sustainable by a First-Class SOLDIER." He frowned and asked, "How did you know that?"

"I met him again in the Lifestream," she said shortly.

Sephiroth faltered—then he continued to run, saying. "Pity. He would have made a fine officer."

Aeris didn't say anything for a long time. At the moment, Sephiroth was going up a long, steep road that led to a thin, ladder-like stalactite. Sephiroth took Aeris off his shoulder and rubbed it as she brushed off her dress.

"Sore?" She asked, looking at his shoulder.

"Considerable downward force," he replied, and chuckled when she slapped him on the arm. Normally he did not brook people hitting him, but it wasn't as though she were doing any damage, and it made her feel better—which would make her feel less reluctant to heal him when the curse struck again. Plus, her ineffectual blows were just funny. Pointing at the stalactite, he said, "Climb."

"You first," she said, frowning. "What if there's a monster up there?"

Good point. Sephiroth crouched and jumped, leaping to the top of the ladder in one smooth leap. "No monsters," he said, looking down at her.

To his surprise, she took a deep breath and jumped also, surging impossibly light into the air to land as softly as a mote of dust next to him. The word "princess" again flashed through his mind, particularly as he saw the Princess Guard gleaming in her hand.

"Don't get complacent," he said, nodding at the cliffs before them. "We've got quite a ways to go."

Aeris groaned. "Can you carry me again?" She asked, looking at him.

Sephiroth looked at her. "Will it get me in your pants?" He asked with a perfectly straight face.

Aeris turned as red as her jacket. "No!" She screeched, and whacked him on the head with the Princess Guard. The length of it lent her a strength she shouldn't have had, and Sephiroth actually saw stars as he staggered, clutching his head. "Honestly! Jeez..." She huffed and stalked off, hopping to the next cliff. Sephiroth glared and followed after her.

"You have no sense of humor," he said, hopping up to join her on the next cliff.

She glared at him. "I couldn't tell if you were joking."

His brows arched. "Excuse me?"

"You looked so serious when you said it," she said, edging away from him. "I wasn't sure."

Sephiroth pointed at himself. "I'm gay, as you may recall."

"You were ogling me at the pool," she said, flushing.

"I was not ogling," he said, annoyed. "Ogling would indicate lust, of which there was none. I was simply admiring the view." Aeris glared, not looking in the least bit pacified. "It was a very nice view," he said graciously, and ducked as she tried to hit him again.

"The correct answer is, 'I didn't see much'," she grated.

"The politically correct, you mean," Sephiroth said, straightening. "You already know I saw. Why lie about it?"

"You're an asshole!" She exhorted, whirling around in a blaze of pink and stomping off.

"And you're a princess," he muttered under his breath before following her.

/\/\/\

Author's note:

Lots of banter. Highly amusing. I had more fun than I imagined I would coming up with the cadences. The mental picture of a Shin-Ra army singing them on its way to battle makes me smirk, to say nothing of Sephiroth singing them in the crater.

They're warming up to each other, or least Sephiroth is unwinding. He's bored. Really, really bored. It makes him do stupid things, like discover the joy of annoying people for the heck of it. Yes, that's what he's doing. If he doesn't constantly rile Aeris, she doesn't talk, and if she doesn't talk, he thinks. Sephiroth is inherently a musclehead, and he doesn't really like to think.

Thanks to Super Lizard for correcting me with terminology: marching songs are not cadences, they are jodies. Yay, something new every day!

/\/\/\


	7. More rudeness

An Unlikely Partnership 

This is an FFVII fanfic by kleptomaniac0. The characters are not mine and never were. Otherwise the Proud Clod wouldn't be such a $& to defeat.

\\\\\

As Sephiroth and Aeris walked on, more and more monsters came out to attack them. Aeris really appreciated Sephiroth's skill then; not only was he a master swordsman, but he apparently had a knowledge of martial arts that would have given Tifa a run for her money, and his greatly enhanced strength was enough to make any monster pause. Still, he wasn't invincible. After a violent tussle with a dark dragon that eventually ended with the dragon beating a retreat, Aeris stepped forward and looked at the long gash on Sephiroth's arm, which bled freely from shoulder to wrist. Sephiroth was glaring at the retreating figure of the dragon, apparently oblivious to his injury.

"Damn it," he growled softly.

"Leave it be," Aeris said, concentrating on her materia. "You chased it off; no need to kill it."

"It might have had a weapon with it!" He snapped, and suddenly noticed what she was doing. "You're healing me?"

"Well, you could bleed to death otherwise," she said, and released the Cure3 spell she had built up between her hands. She frowned as the sparks veered away from his arm. "What the...?" She tried again, and her frown deepened as the magic refused to heal him. "Well, that's crap!" Aeris huffed, drawing on her Cetra powers. Those, at least, still worked, and Sephiroth watched keenly as her magic healed him from the inside out, knitting muscle and sinew before skin rather than carelessly sticking everything together.

"I wonder why the magic didn't work..." Aeris said aloud, perplexed.

"Some reason," Sephiroth said vaguely. Changing the subject, he asked, "How are you? Tired?"

"Me? No," she said, shaking her head. "You?"

"Not at all," he said. "Let's get going. I don't like staying where there are monsters around."

But apparently, no matter where they moved, there were monsters. As they darted in, found Sephiroth too powerful, and leapt back, Aeris noted with concern that her silver-haired companion was visibly beginning to tire.

"Why don't we take a rest?" She suggested as he leaned forward, his hands on his knees. "You look—" She stopped, aware of his pride, and revised her sentence. "I mean, I'm feeling really tired."

Sephiroth shot her a look of annoyance, but it was muted by the sweaty strands of hair sticking to his face and chest. "Alright," he growled, throwing himself onto the ground. "Ten minutes."

Aeris sat cautiously a small ways away from him. Sephiroth sure seemed bitchy right now. What had happened to his cool demeanor? As Aeris watched, Sephiroth picked up a nearby rock and closed his fist around it, his knuckles turning white with the strain. Her eyebrows shot up in surprise as the rock fractured, making an audible crack in the still air. Sephiroth stared at the rock, a look of growing horror on his face, and hurled the stone away with a snarl of frustration. Aeris heard it hit something and clatter to the floor in pieces.

"What's wrong?" Aeris asked, finally unable to resist.

Sephiroth clasped his hands together, pressing his knuckles against his lips. He seemed angry, brooding—and a little scared. "I'm weaker than I should be," he said, not looking at her. "I should have been able to crumble that."

Aeris frowned. "You're...weaker? But why?"

He laughed bitterly. "It's the Curse of the Planet."

"Curse?" Aeris repeated, her frown deepening.

Sephiroth looked at her. "Don't you wonder why I'm alive?"

"Well..." Aeris said doubtfully. "It's always possible you could have survived..."

Sephiroth shook his head firmly. "Cloud destroyed me in body and soul," he said tightly. "I'm only alive now because the Planet wants me to be."

Aeris jerked in shock. "Why?"

"To torture me," Sephiroth said with a certain relish.

"That's not possible!" Aeris exclaimed. "The Planet's not petty like that!"

"So says the Planet's chosen!" Sephiroth spat, his eyes becoming very bright. "Your precious Planet is punishing me for siding with Jenova by taking away every power she gave me and making me immune to its powers. That was why the Cure3 didn't work."

"But wait!" Aeris cried. "My powers..."

"Every Cetra is a microcosm of the Planet," Sephiroth said. "You no less so because of your mixed heritage. Every time you heal me, you temporarily supersede the Planet's curse."

"So..." Aeris choked, her mind racing. "You..."

"I'll wake up every morning," he said in a voice of forced calm, "disemboweled, bleeding, and unable to heal myself until the end of my natural lifespan, upon which I will _not_ rejoin the Lifestream; I'll stay here forever, a crying ghost. I don't need to eat and I don't need to sleep; those things would heal me, so of course they are denied."

"That's horrible!" Aeris exclaimed. Though she was overjoyed to be alive again, the idea of never being able to go back to the Lifestream's comforting warmth was too terrible to comprehend. As for a lifetime for eternal suffering...

"Punished by circumstance and then punished for my punishment," Sephiroth muttered, half to himself and half to her. "I've been fucked since birth."

Aeris shook her head, both to banish his statement and her own shock at his fate. "Don't say that!" She said strongly. "I'm sure there's a way to lift the Curse."

Sephiroth snorted. "Knowing the Planet, the cure's not anything I can do myself..." Glancing at her, he said, "And you have no reason to help me. I killed you, remember? What's to say I won't do the same once the Curse is lifted?"

That stopped Aeris cold. In truth, Sephiroth's curse was all that was keeping her alive right now. No doubt Sephiroth would make better time through the Crater alone, and if he were healthy, he could hurt her any way he liked...

Sephiroth looked away, his eyes a dark, stormy green. "Be glad I'm incapacitated," he said softly. "Be very, very glad."

But she couldn't be, not really. Aeris was disturbed. Always she had thought of the Planet as a nurturing presence, a warm one that suffered silently despite all the pain its children inflicted on it. The idea of it being able to be petty disturbed her.

_"Yes, he sided with Jenova, but he was still born as one of the Planet's children... How could it do this to him?"_

Sephiroth sighed gustily and got to his feet, not looking at her. "Let's go," he said shortly. "We've wasted enough time."

Aeris pushed herself to her feet, unable to look at him. For no good reason, she felt ashamed. "I'm sorry," she said, and instantly regretted it as Sephiroth turned around and glared at her.

"I'm not so low," he growled. "That I need your pity."

His bad attitude grated on her nerves. Aeris put her hands on her hips and snapped, "Well, excuse me! You got it anyway. Or what do you think I keep healing you for?"

Wrong answer. Aeris realized this as Sephiroth's eyes, just as green as hers but infinitely alien, flashed with burning light. She tensed in preparation for a blow, but one never came. Sephiroth just glared at her, his eyes practically dripping venom.

"Mutual gain," he grated out. "I guide and protect you, and you keep me from dying. Remember?"

"I remember," Aeris snapped back, flushing. "I just wish you weren't such an ass all the time!"

"And I wish you weren't a princess, but we can't have everything we want, can we?"

"This is exactly what I'm talking about!" Aeris yelled, pointing at him. "You never stop insulting me or annoying me—"

"And you think I like this arrangement?" Sephiroth roared, stunning her into silence. "I _was_ the most powerful person on the Planet! Even before the Jenova fiasco, no one could command me! And now I'm at the mercy of my own fucked-up body, my goddamn genes, and a little pink _flower girl_ who's never suffered a day in her life!"

Aeris later recalled hearing something distinctly snap. "Never suffered?" She repeated, taking a step toward him. "Never suffered? You bastard!" She swung at him with the Princess Guard, her rage increasing when he dodged. "My mother died right in front of me! How's that for suffering?" She swiped again, clipping his cheek with one of the Princess Guard's wings. "A labrat for seven years!" Swipe. Duck. "And let's not forget hearing the screams of the Planet every day until I felt like my ears would bleed!"

Leaping into the air, Aeris turned the Princess Guard knifelike and brought it down on Sephiroth's head in an impressive imitation of Cloud's Braver Limit Break. The jarring impact sent waves of pain up her arms, but Aeris didn't care. As Sephiroth reeled, cursing, she landed and swung at him again, catching him in the side of the head. He staggered and she screamed, "I didn't suffer the same as you, but don't ever say that I never hurt a day in my life! And unlike you, I didn't go running to the first voice in my head!"

"So what prompted you to summon Holy?" Sephiroth demanded furiously, no less frightening for clutching his head in his hands. "What made you decide to follow AVALANCHE? You were only following the Planet's will!" Following her example and stabbing his finger into her breastbone (it did not occur to either of them at the time that he could have put his finger _through_ her breastbone), he snarled, "The only thing that separates you and me is circumstance. In my shoes, you would have gone to help the only one who ever cared about you as a person, not a tool."

"Jenova doesn't _care_ about you!" Aeris cried, staring at him in disbelief. "Jenova's a devouring alien who eats planets! She tried to make you her Angel of Death, and—"

"I KNOW!" Sephiroth bellowed, and the sheer number of decibels he was blasting at her made Aeris stagger back a pace. His eyes were shining brightly, flickering like strobes around his pupils and though Aeris was sure they weren't reflective of his mental state, she couldn't help but edge back a little as he took a couple of deep breaths, his rock-crushing hands flexing as if he wanted to close them around her throat. As many people did before they died, Aeris frantically reviewed her last actions.

_"I shouldn't have said Jenova didn't care... I mean, he probably knows that by now. I didn't need to throw his stupidity in his face. Why did I do that? How come he makes me so angry so fast?"_

"Enough of this," Sephiroth said suddenly, making her jump. "Are you ready to go?"

_"That's just spooky, how he turns his temper on and off," _Aeris thought with a little shudder. A dull ache was building in her breastbone where he'd poked—and stabbed—her.

"I said," he repeated in a voice of mock patience. "Are you ready to go? Because there's still a very long way to go until we're free of each other's company."

Aeris blinked, and her eyes narrowed into a glare. Assholish Sephiroth; this she could deal with. "Lead the way," she grated.

Wordlessly Sephiroth whipped around in a furl of silver hair that caught Aeris full in the face and she spat out strands of mercury white as she stalked after him.

/\/\/\/\/\

Author's note:

More screaming. Fun. But it seems a tad unnatural to me and I don't know why... Suggestions?

/\/\/\/\/\


End file.
